A step closer to 'synthetic life'

A step closer to 'synthetic life'

news.bbc.co.uk

In what has been described as a step towards the creation of a synthetic cell, scientists have created a new "engineered" strain of bacteria.

A team successfully transferred the genome of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it, and then transplanted into another bacterium.

This paves the way to the creation of a synthetic organism - inserting a human-made genome into a bacterial cell.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ok, some of the ideas as to what we could do with such modified bacteria seems pretty reasonable, such as creating fuel..

But there has to be a down side to this and I am having a hard time trying not to imagine the possible outcome of a mutation turning bad..

The resulting cell he and his team created went on to undertake multiple rounds of cell division, to produce a new strain of the modified bacteria.

Dr Vashee explained to BBC News that the work overcame a hurdle in the quest to create a fully synthetic organism.

"Bacteria have 'immune' systems that protect them from foreign DNA such as those from viruses," he explained.

He and his colleagues managed to disable this immune system, which consists of proteins called restriction enzymes that home in on specific sections of DNA and chop up the genome at these points.

There are concerns that this might end up 'in the wrong hands' !!

Well, if it is going to be used to help make fule then I suspect it wont be too hard to get your hands on some of it and modify as you wish..

Humanity playing God again..

What with all the bird flu, swine flu, dog flu and many other viruses running loose, could it be possible that bacteris devouring an infected corpse could, in some manner, become a master at mutating with any number of viruses and/or bacteria?

Where are we going?

The bacteria (en-us-bacteria.ogg [bækˈtɪərɪə] (help·info); singular: bacterium)[α] are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals. Bacteria are ubiquitous in every habitat on Earth, growing in soil, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste,[2] water, and deep in the Earth's crust, as well as in organic matter and the live bodies of plants and animals. There are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil and a million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water; in all, there are approximately five nonillion (5×1030) bacteria on Earth,[3] forming much of the world's biomass.[4] Bacteria are vital in recycling nutrients, with many steps in nutrient cycles depending on these organisms, such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere and putrefaction. However, most bacteria have not been characterized, and only about half of the phyla of bacteria have species that can be grown in the laboratory.[5] The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology.

en.wikipedia.org...


news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 20-8-2009 by Extralien]

reply to post by Extralien


This is really far out, but maybe it will help your imagination. What about a bacteria with a human consciousness? That seems pretty torturous!

Our genome is our identity! Inserting it into other things gets kind of creepy!

I am still in favor of the research, because creating new organs and tissues could help so many people, but it does creep me out a little bit to think of arms and hearts and brain cells growing in labs!

Nope. Don't like it ONE bit.

When they 'synthetic lifeforms' begin to reproduce, we're in trouble. Sounds like we're in trouble.

Why are we even PLAYING with this? For science? For the good of 'knowing?'

I wonder where they got there funding. Oh, they are a non-profit. how special.

Here's one interesting article from their own website:

J. Craig Venter Institute Awarded $43 Million, Five Year Contract from NIAID to Continue to Develop and Provide Sequencing, Genotyping, and Bioinformatics Expertise and Services in Infectious Diseases

This was in MAY 2209.

=67&cHash=595092be81]Source
(I know the link looks weird, but it works)
So....here's a question....why is this fancy lab that is SUPPOSED to be working on things to help us get through this H1N1 crap even toying around with creating new synthetic bugs? Is this so they can better understand swine flu? Hmm.

More to this whole thing that meets the eye and I think it stinks.

reply to post by KSPigpen


Yup.. There seems to be a sale on at the moment in relation to bugs, germs, viruses and other dieseases.

Highest bidders get to play God while the rest of us are the little piggies that get tested and suffer the consequences via vaccines and other drugs 'designed' to do good yet seperate studies suggest there is no or little evidence of any benefit.

Again, corporate monsters get to do as they please and release their study as valid work paid for by tax payers money, yet this work will only really benefit TPTB.

The guise of 'making fuel' is just one of many masks they use to make these things alright whilst secret chem and bio weapons are made and tested in various discreet ways.

Maybe they will create a bacteria that will clean up all the depleted uranium rounds that are currently lying all over Iraq and Afghanistan,,,

I doubt it very much..